


Forever

by starlight_and_seafire



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Marriage Proposal, POV Poe Dameron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:22:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21826633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlight_and_seafire/pseuds/starlight_and_seafire
Summary: The war has come to an end and now it’s time to celebrate, to look forward to all the possibilities the future holds.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Rey
Comments: 20
Kudos: 96





	Forever

“To Jessika Pava, for those killer moves that took out all those TIE fighter’s, and then followed that up by leading the charge that wiped out that star destroyer! Hear, hear!"

Cheers went up through the hangar and people stamped their feet, the celebration easily overshadowing the loud techno-pop music that played loudly over the speakers set up throughout the hangar.

Poe grinned at the Twi’lek who stood atop the nearby table, cup in hand, the apparent master of ceremonies at what is the largest party he’s ever seen the Resistance throw.

And he’s seen a few of them. Mostly early on, before the war really started, before they could even begin to imagine the toll of it all. Before all the horror. Before all the death and destruction.

But now — now the war is at its end and the Resistance has won. A new Republic will be born once again.

There will be time for them to grieve later, and no doubt they will mourn, for the cost of war was high and more than a few of his fellow fighters — more than a few of his friends — paid with their lives.

But now, now it’s time to celebrate, to look forward to all the possibilities the future holds.

He sips from his cup, grinning at the cheers that continue to fill the air, as he makes his way back to Rey. She stands on the edge of the room, a content smile on her face as she scans the crowd. That smile only widens as he gets to her and she takes the other cup he holds.

Then she laughs as he reaches forward and tugs her to him in yet another hug, and the sound is music to his ears. The stress and anguish of the last few months of the war had been wearing down on all of them, and her laughter soothes something inside of him. He wants to hear it again and again and again.

“To Kaydel Ko Connix! No voice we’d rather have in our ears to guide us home!”

Rey draws back just enough to whoop along with the rest of the crowd, her arm still wrapped around his neck to keep him close.

He has no complaints. He doesn’t intend to go far from her side anymore, not if he can help it.

She grins at him. “What took you so long?”

She speaks a little louder than normal to be heard over the din of the crowd, but he thinks he’d be able to pick her voice out from a thousand klicks away, through the noise of a dozen star destroyers firing shots around them.

_No._

The war is over. He wants to imagine something happier, more peaceful now. He thinks of the chittering of the colorful woolamanders on Yavin IV, the hoots of the whisper birds. Rey’s sweet voice, her warm presence, would fit right in with all the life that fills the planet, and despite the hum of noise on Yavin IV, he knows he would still be able to pick out her voice from halfway across the jungle.

He’s absolutely delighted at the thought of her on Yavin IV amongst all the green, all the wonderful, teeming life. He presses a kiss to her temple before finally remembering to respond to her question. “Had to dig around for something a little tastier than the jet fuel they’ve been handing out.”

Her eyes search his face for a long moment, and he wonders briefly if she knows where his thoughts had just wandered. She’s always been perceptive like that; she can read him like an open book.

Instead, she takes a sip from her cup and her face alights in pleasure. “It tastes like, like—” and she licks at her lips as she searches for the right word. “Sunshine. It tastes like sunshine.”

He smiles widely. He did his best to recreate the taste of the cocktail he had once at a party not so long ago. He thought she would like the fresh, bright taste of the drink; he’s pleased to know that he was right.

She takes another sip and then gazes down at its contents in contemplation.

“This really is amazing. How do you make this?”

In all honesty, it was a little of this and a little of that, and he probably got lucky getting it even close to right this time. Instead, he grins slyly and winks at her. “It’s a secret recipe.”

“Guess I’m going to have to keep you around so you can keep making this for me, huh?”

She’s grinning down at her drink, so she misses the way his eyes widen. He wonders if she can hear the way his heart has just slammed into his chest.

Her words have hit a little too close to home once again.

“To Rose Tico, for keeping our fighters in the air and reminding us what we fight for!”

The Twi’lek’s booming voice breaks through their little bubble once again at the sound of a name they are both so fond of. They look over to the young mechanic-slash-commander and give out their loudest cheers yet. From their corner, they can see the bright red blush staining her cheeks, and she steps in a little closer to Finn’s side even as she lifts her cup toward the crowds shouting for her.

Rey smiles at him again, and he sees her flush of pleasure, the way she’s absolutely delighted at her friends getting the accolades they so richly deserve.

He’s so absolutely, completely, overwhelmingly in love with her that it feels like he could burst with it. He presses another kiss to her temple as the arm looped around her waist gives her a gentle squeeze, and listens to her soft hum of contentment, the sound of it a delicious contrast to the absolute hubbub of noise around them.

“To General Leia Organa! For showing us the way and never giving up hope!”

This time, their eyes search the crowd until they find Lando Calrissian and a handful of other Rebellion war veterans: Wedge Antilles, Norra Wexley, and Hera Syndulla, all receiving their own toasts earlier, all looking wearier than ever. He can’t even begin to imagine fighting two wars in one lifetime.

There, in the middle of them, stands Leia Organa. She’s petite, already much shorter than the people around her, and leaning heavily on a cane. Still, the very force of her personality makes her seem leagues taller, and the group around her parts as the crowd raises their drinks in her honor.

Poe lifts his own cup and meets Leia’s eyes from across the hangar. They all owe her so much. _He_ owes her so much. He can’t even begin to contemplate how he could ever repay her.

Instead, he hopes that he can live up to the standard she’s set. He thinks that if he can even do half a good of a job as she has, well, it would be an honorable life.

He’s lost in his memories of the example she’s set when he hears the Twi’lek’s voice rise above the noise once again and senses the eyes of the crowd turn towards him.

“To Poe Dameron! One hell of a pilot, one hell of a leader!”

The crowd cheers wildly and Poe feels his face flush a little in embarrassment. Then a familiar voice carries across the large room.

“Even if his hair will never look half as good as General Organa’s!”

Poe easily recognizes that voice, a voice so familiar to him from the endless missions Black Squadron had run, that echoed through his comms. He catches sight of Snap across the room, a familiar shit-eating grin on his friend’s face, as he stands next to Karé, an arm wrapped around his wife and holding her close.

Poe flips him off to the laughter of those around them, smiling broadly all the while at the sight of his teammates, his _family_ , reveling in the freedom they’ve earned. He’s distracted once again when Rey hides her face in his shoulder. He can feel the vibrations from her giggles against him, and he moves his arm just slightly from her waist, to press his hand between her shoulder blades, reveling in the feel of her laughter beneath his palm.

Once her giggles subside, though, he can’t help but grin down at her smiling face. “Something funny, sweetheart?”

“Just imagining you with braids in your hair,” she says, a hand reaching up to twirl a lock of his hair around her fingers. “Maybe even those big ol’ buns beside your ears.”

He furrows his brow, as if he’s seriously contemplating the idea of it. “Yeah? I don’t know if my hair’s really long enough for a braid, though.”

“Maybe not yet. But we’ve got time.”

 _Kriff_ , the way she says that, so easy, so certain.

He tried not to let himself think about it too much during the war. He loved Rey and he wanted forever with her, but with a war — a war that at times seemed endless, sometimes insurmountable — happening all around them, he tried not to let himself imagine the future too much.

It was too painful, then. Not when everything seemed so uncertain.

But now? Now, “Yeah, sweetheart. We’ve got time.”

Her blinding smile pulls all his thoughts of a long future together back to the forefront of his mind once more.

He’s imagining her with a certain ring on her hand when he hears, “To Finn! A beacon of hope for so many lost children in the galaxy, a true leader for the cause of freedom!”

Neither of them release the other as they cheer as loud as they can for their friend. Poe catches Finn’s eye where he stands with Rose’s arms still wrapped around his waist, raises his cup towards him as Rey follows suit.

He doesn’t know what his life would be like without either one of them in it. He doesn’t even want to imagine the possibility. They’re his family.

Then he hears Rey’s name and he can practically feel his body flood with love and pride. She must sense it. There’s no way his flesh could contain it all.

“To Rey! A beacon of light, the savior of the galaxy!”

He smiles so hard his cheeks ache with it while the crowd cheers for her. He thinks it’s not nearly enough recognition for the woman who saved them all, but it’s a start.

The applause fades away, the toasts coming to an end, as the Twi’lek steps down from the table even as the party continues to rage on around them, the music being turned up once more.

Rey’s gone quiet though, and she sits down on the bench behind them, a thoughtful expression on her face.

“What is it?” he can’t help but ask at the sudden change in her demeanor, follows her down to sit next to her.

“I don’t have a last name,” she says, her gaze following the Twi’lek as she hugs a few of her fellow soldiers. It was hard to miss the way she used everyone’s full names as the crowd toasted them.

For a long time, he liked to think of himself as someone who always had the right words to say in any situation, whether it was confronting a foe or comforting a friend or motivating his troops.

Then he met Rey, who spun his world on its axis so easily, often left him tripping over his own feet and tongue in constant amazement of her. Now, he desperately wishes that weren’t the case. Now he searches for the right words, but he’s uncertain how to respond, particularly after the last few weeks. After all they’d learned. After all _she_ learned.

“I mean, I guess I do, but . . . not really, you know?” She pauses, takes in the celebration around her, eyebrows pulling together in contemplation. He senses she’s not sad, just thoughtful, which is some comfort at least. “I’m just wondering what it’d be like to have one.”

“One what?” he asks, puzzled.

“A last name,” she says, rolling her eyes, that fond smile of hers that he loves so much pulling at her lips as she looks at him.

He blames the atmosphere at the party, the joy and celebration and relief suffusing every being in that hangar, the dancing and shouts of joy, the smoke and drinks being passed around, not to mention the sheer amount of love and affection he has pounding through his bloodstream now, always has when he’s around her — it’s all gone to his head, cause clearly it’s too distracted to stop his mouth before he asks, “Would you like one?”

Kriff, kriff, kriff. Oh, _frag_. He hadn’t meant to ask her like this, not now. He had a plan, he knew exactly how he was going to ask her, to bring her to Yavin IV, to show her the Force tree, to get down on one knee and present her with his mother’s ring and ask her to stay with him forever.

It was going to be sweet. It was going to be romantic.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Her eyes widen. Her head tilts to the side as she examines him. She blinks once, then twice.

_Maybe she didn’t know all that his question implied?_

But no, Rey is too smart for that. She may have grown up isolated and alone on Jakku, and maybe she didn’t know then, but she’s too smart, too fast of a learner, she surely knows of that particular custom now, where one partner sometimes took the other’s last name in marriage.

He’s just opened his mouth to apologize, to . . . to . . . well, he doesn’t exactly know what he’s going to say just yet, but he’ll figure it out. He just hopes he didn’t mess up too badly.

And then she smiles, bright and clear, as brilliant as the dawning sun. Then, “Yes.”

His jaw drops a little, surely she can’t mean . . . “Yes?”

Her smile remains just as brilliant, even as there’s a new glint in her eye and something almost teasing in her voice as she says, “I would like a last name. I assume you were offering yours?”

His mouth opens and closes a few times, and he’s uncomfortably aware that he probably looks a little like one of those big, round fish in the shallows of the lake near his father’s house on Yavin IV, the ones that always seemed to be swimming around with perpetually surprised expressions on their faces.

They’re orange, too. It seems fitting.

She’s kind enough not to laugh at him, though the look in her eyes is full of mirth. “Poe Dameron, if you’re offering me your last name, I guess it’s only fair to ask you to marry me first.”

He sputters, finally manages to choke out, “I was supposed to ask you that!”

Rey looks absolutely gleeful. “You snooze, you lose.”

He had plans, but still, he’s so . . . so . . . so absolutely elated, _is this actually happening?_ , that it all feels very surreal. He casts his eyes around wildly, wondering if people can hear the way his heart has started hammering just beneath his skin, it feels like it’s going to beat out of his chest, are people aware of the absolutely earth-shaking moment that is happening over here, _that this amazing, completely awe-inspiring, perfect woman just asked him to marry her, and_ —

He yelps and stares in shock at Rey, who is currently giggling after having poked her fingers into the ticklish spot just under his ribs.

She smirks at him. “You just going to leave me hanging, Dameron?”

“Never,” he says, the promise of that one word wrapping around them both. He grasps her hands in both of his and brings them to his mouth, pressing kisses to her knuckles over and over again. “If you want me, I’m yours forever.”

It’s as if she melts, her spine slackening as she curls forward, leaning towards him like a flower towards the sun. He can’t help but follow her lead and they come together in a kiss over their joined hands, and he thinks she’s the sweetest thing he’s ever tasted.

Rey presses her forehead to his as they finally part to catch their breath. “Then I guess this means forever.”

He closes his eyes, savoring the moment. “Forever.”

He can feel her grin as she says, “And a new last name.”

He chuckles, pulls back just enough to drink her in. “If you want it, it’s yours. Forever.”

Her answering smile is brighter than the sun.

In their little bubble in the corner of the room, he unclasps his necklace and slips the ring off before placing it where it belongs. For a long moment they both admire the glint of silver against her skin, before they come together once more in an embrace.

As the celebration rages on around them, they hold on to each other, and all he can think of is —

_Forever._


End file.
